The Stone Breaker, c. 1882

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 88

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

overall: 14.61 × 24.13 cm (5 3/4 × 9 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

2014.18.50

Artists / Makers

Georges Seurat (artist) French, 1859 - 1891

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

The artist [1857-1891] until his death.[1] Jacques and Pierre Puybonnieux, Paris, until 1956.[2] (Wildenstein, Paris). Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon [1910-2014].

[1] Atelier Seurat, posthumous inventory, no. 4.

[2] Jacques and Pierre Puybonnieux were the sons of Marie Puybonnieux, Seurat’s cousin, who probably inherited the painting from Seurat’s mother. They probably lent the painting to the 1933 exhibition Seurat et Ses Amis, as they did lend a small panel formerly in the Adele and Arthur Lehman collection.

Associated Names

Mellon, Paul
Puybonnieux, Jacques
Puybonnieux, Pierre
Seurat, Georges
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.

Exhibition History

1933: Seurat et ses amis, Exposition de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1933, no. 164.

1958: Possibly Seurat, Paintings and Drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1958, no. 28 (title is the same, but dimensions are given as 7 3/4" x 11 1/4").

Bibliography

1959: Dorra, Henri, and John Rewald. Seurat, l'oeuvre peint, biographie et catalogue critique. Paris, 1959: no. 56, repro.

1976: Alpers, Svetlana. "Describe or Narrate? A Problem in Realistic Representation." New Literary History 8, no. 1 (Autumn 1976): 37, repro. 15.

1991: Grenier, Catherine. Seurat: Catalogue complet des peintures. Paris, 1991: no, 36, repro.